quote/unquote: Barry Diller knocks Twitter, Barkley on defense, T.R. on Teddy, Specter on GOP, Cocteau on poetic tragedy

(Editor's Note: Another in a regular series of apparently random quotes collected by Wilson in St. Louis.)

"I'm sure there are some commercial applications for Twitter, but they don't really interest me. I mean, 140 characters?"
--- Barry Diller, IAC/InterActive CEO, in today's Wall Street Journal

"That's just great offense against great defense. But this isn't baseball, where pitching can stop hitting."
--- Charles Barkley, last night, in commenting that the offense of Paul Pierce trumped the Bulls' defense

"No man who knows me well calls me by my nickname."
--- President Theodore Roosevelt, who loathed being called "Teddy."

"They don't make any bones about their willingness to lose the general election if they can purify the party. There ought to be a rebellion. There ought to be an uprising."
-- Sen. Arlen Specter, commenting on his decision to become a Democrat considering the likelihood of losing the Republican primary to a conservative opponent running against him because of his moderate views.

"The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood."
--- Jean Cocteau, pictured above, (1891-1963)